2013 an exhibition of works by 2013 Front oil Cover on canvas 91.5 x 121.9 cm (36 x 48 in) 1 Studio Campion, 2012 For almost fifty years now, Geoffrey Key has been one of the most successful and recognised names in Northern contemporary art. His boldly stylised landscapes, still lifes, equestrian and figure subjects – long sought after Forewordby Manchester and Salford’s private collectors and institutions – now evidently inspire the work of several succeeding Northern painters. And yet, while he has often shown his work to international acclaim, Key chose to build his success largely on his own patch, and always on his own terms. In 1966, while many of his peers were participating in the Northern Young Contemporaries exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Key, who had not been invited, opened a one-man show at the Salford Art Gallery. Art critic for the Daily Express, William Hickey in his glowing and curators as ‘one of the best local artists, untouched review of the show quoted dealers and collectors who by Lowry-mania’; ‘one of the, if not the best artist praised Key, alternately terming him “the best thing working in the area’; ‘an immensely gifted artist’; to come along since Lowry”, and “nothing like Lowry.” ‘a consistent ambassador for [Salford]’, and so on. Other critics followed with favourable comparisons to Henry Moore and Keith Vaughan, but these too were If Key found this growing acclaim flattering (and why subsequently termed “superficial.” In the catalogue essay not?) it clearly had no bearing on how his work grew and accompanying Key’s Industrial Paintings exhibition, developed, as it did very prolifically. Hints of various Neville Rawlinson, an early collector of his work finally strands of British and European modernism may surface commented: ‘It is unnecessary to make comparisons, off and on, but his style and technique have the kind of or to attribute influences; [Key] has already established internal consistency that only comes out of an assured, a style, which is personal and recognisible, and he is wholly individual artistic personality. constantly experimenting and developing. He is a young man with notable accomplishments; and tremendous Indeed, confidence and eccentricity would appear to promise.’ be the cornerstones not only of Key’s work, but also his personality, and even appearance. Bearded, bow-tied and For the most part, Rawlinson’s statement still holds true, keen-eyed, with a nifty line in waistcoats, his conversation but at the time, Key met all this praise with the wry good about his work, and himself is open yet considered. grace that still marks his character, stating: “the thought He speaks warmly and evenly, and is moreover a good of being taken up and lionised doesn’t worry me, simply listener, showing genuine interest in how others see his because it hasn’t happened and might never happen.” work – even if these reactions have little to do with his Nevertheless, throughout the rest of the 1960s and the actual motivations. Moreover, video interviews and studio 1970s, Key continued to find himself described by critics footage show a true epicurean’s fearless enjoyment of oil on canvas 76.2 x 61 cms 30 x 24 ins 2 Panama with Saw, 2012 oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cms 24 x 20 ins 3 City Workers, 2012 Opposite oil on canvas 121.9 x 91.5 cms 48 x 36 ins 4 City’s Edge, 2012 paint. Watching Key take a fully loaded brush and meet In an effort to foster his interest, and possibly gain his canvas with a sure, solid, sweep of colour is to feel all some relief from the tedium of housework, Key’s mother the rush of making that first mark on a blank page, with would often take him to the City Art Gallery (as it was none of the angst or self-doubt. then known). At that time the gallery’s now eclectic collection was largely comprised of donations by late Victorian industrialists, and reflected their taste for the Pre-Raphaelite and early Social Realist painters [e.g. Waterhouse, Millais, Ford Maddox Brown, Sickert etc.). Even subliminally, such works must have made some impression on Key’s young imagination, and it is tempting to believe that seeing one of William Roberts’s monumental women might have had some sort of formative influence, even if his mother (and his instincts) discouraged him from actually copying works. He could not help but know the work by Adolphe Vallette and, particularly, L. S. Lowry. Later, as a student, he often saw Lowry at the Lyons Coffee House on Albert Square and came to know the iconic painter. This same joie-de-vivre also fills the Salford studio- home Key shares with his wife, Judith O’Leary, an avid horsewoman, and editor of several books on his work. Their house is filled with African and Asian artefacts, particularly from India and Tibet, many of which were collected on travels to exhibit Key’s work in the Far East. Key’s own carved heads and busts sit fittingly in rooms furnished with baroque paintings, sculpture and furniture, where they peep out from beneath his impressive collection of fedoras. The curving forms of orchids, majolica pots and treen, stained glass and pops of yellow throughout the rooms harmonise with Key’s own pictures, past and present, drawing the eye with When he was thirteen, Key won a place at the Manchester their stylish, rubber-ball energy. High School of Art, Ernest Goodman’s initiative, and by the late 1950s he began studies with Ted Roocroft and Key can scarcely remember a time when art was not Harry Rutherford at the Manchester Regional College at the centre of his life. As he recalls: ‘I remember the of Art. Key frankly describes his first pictures as being shock and delight of experiencing the smell of oil paints more or less re-treads of Rutherford’s work, which in and turpentine and the feel of paper and canvas. These turn was largely informed by that of his own teacher, physical things are sources of pleasure on their own, so Sickert. In his early career, Key was often referred add to them the fact that drawing has always been the to as a close successor to Lowry, if only because he most instinctive and simplest way to describe something, painted local townscapes and used a similar restrained and I was set on the path to become an artist from as palette. But unlike Key (or for that matter Rutherford, early as I can remember.’ whose work was far more influential on Key) Lowry defined his cityscapes by their human presence. In these early works – studies of Manchester’s city centre – Key instead combined Rutherford’s bold, prosaic style with a strong graphic appeal that recalls prints by the Grosvenor School, and demonstrates his early interest in compositional dynamism. Piccadilly, Manchester, 1965 Head, 1967, David Messum Fine Paintings Ltd Salford Art Gallery Throughout the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, like many artists of the time, Key experimented with a variety of styles and influences taken from (among others) Ben Nicholson, Victor Pasmore, Paul Nash and Keith Vaughan. He sifted various aspects from these artists’ work for technical, formal and stylistic clues, but his artistic conclusions remained completely personal. Early works like Head (1967) and Flowers in Moonlight (1966) show a focus on pure composition and an emphasis on tone and texture over colour familiar from works by Nicholson, in particular. Flowers in Moonlight, 1966, Salford Art Gallery oil on canvas 61 x 76.2 cms 24 x 30 ins 5 Guitar, 2012 Opposite oil on canvas 76.2 x 101.6 cms 30 x 40 ins 6 Park Tango, 2012 His astute borrowings from European modernism (particularly the School of Paris) show he was possibly also looking at works by Picasso, Braque, Lipschitz and Zadkine, among others. But whatever signposts technical, formal or stylistic he may have found in the work of other artists, his destination remained completely his own, and would inevitably be centred on his native North. Upon completion of his post-graduate work in sculpture, Key moved to Glossop in Derbyshire, where he took up a teaching post. Around this time he became increasingly obsessed by the Nab, and made countless studies of the fell and its surroundings: these are both landscapes and exercises in the interplay of curves and straight lines. Key describes his focus on these early, formative has been through my work right up to the present time.’ landscapes: ‘I didn’t go searching for the subject matter Simultaneously, he also painted industrial landscapes, because [the Nab] was my environment and changing mostly of Eccles, and often based on the view outside seasons changed the format and shape of the hill. What his classroom window. This particular aspect, coupled really instigated it was the relationship of shapes and with the fact that in the 1960s, art class was basically forms within the hill-shape… One key part was a strong little more than a holding pen for unruly students, partly vertical shaft of light above the hill and this particular influenced Key’s decision to eventually quit teaching and motif…this form in relationship to sun and moon shapes take up painting full time. Following his highly successful Salford show, during the 1970s he exhibited at several northern venues, including Sheffield, Manchester, and Bradford. By the early 1980s, he also began to show his work at Todmorden Fine Art, a Dickensian bran tub of a gallery located off a side street in this West Yorkshire market town.